"Leaf" it Alone

4/28/2013

The sun is shining, temperatures rising- time for the summer season to get started!

This year, the three outdoor shows will be sharing a common Scenic Designer, Michael Giannio, as well as a common main setting with changing secondary elements. The main set is supposed to give the flavor of a stylized forest. When the doors to the inner above and inner below slide away, however, a realistic forest is revealed. In order to achieve this effect, we are painting pieces of the actual Elizabethan stage as well as pieces special built by our shop to look like pieces of the Lizzy.

The first step to making this foliage is to start creating layers beginning with our darkest colors and working up to our brightest.

Here, you can see the brown leaves we painted to get the layers started.

Next, Amanda assesses the renderings and finds the trunks and branches.

Next we start to make shapes by adding areas of green leaves around the branches.

Below, Thayne adds highlights and shadows to the leaves.

That was the easy part. Now it's time to fill out those branches!

The light coming through the branches is added at this time to retain it's brightness. Clumps of brown dead leaves are added as well as bright bright yellow greens fading into the white of the sky. Any branches closer to the viewer are added or punched up. We also use this stage to differentiate one group of leaves form another.

This is where we really make the flats look like the renderings.